According to fresh evidence, the first love kiss was recorded at least 4,500 years ago, which is roughly 1,000 years earlier than previously supposed.
After consulting clay tablets and other artifacts from early Mesopotamian communities, experts from the Universities of Copenhagen and Oxford published their results in a new paper in Science on the “old history of kissing.”
Early Proof of Romantic Kiss
Earliest Evidence of Romantic Kiss
The area that is currently believed to be modern-day Iraq and Syria is said to have been ancient Mesopotamia.
It was previously thought that the first instances of romantic-sexual lip kissing in humans date back 3,500 years to South Asia. The University of Copenhagen claims that it then spread to other areas.
These beliefs are challenged by contemporary research, which contends that kissing was widespread and began much earlier in many different areas and cultures.
The researchers discovered that there are two categories of kissing in the Akkadian language: friendly and familial affection and erotic action after looking at the clay tablets written in cuneiform script used in the study.
Tracing its History and Possible Pre-Writing Roots
While its precise roots are still unknown, there is some potential evidence that romantic kissing may have existed even before writing.
The researchers also examined sexually-transmitted diseases in early kissing and its unintentional role in the transmission of herpes simplex virus 1 — also known as cold sores.
Early kissing’s unintentional involvement in the spread of the herpes simplex virus 1, or cold sores, was also investigated by the researchers, as were sexually transmitted diseases.
The presence of certain religious and cultural undertones prevents this from being taken totally at face value, but said that it is nonetheless intriguing to observe certain similarities between the disease described as bushanu in ancient medical writings.
Read more: WHO issues warning: Artificial sweeteners deemed risky for consumption